Jake Browning: Unclaimed Demigod
by Spacedragon1999
Summary: Jake Browning was never a normal kid. He was an orphan with ADHD and Dyslexia. Shunned his entire life for no reason, he runs away from his orphanage in Scotland. But when he meets Luke, Thalia and Annabeth outside Chicago, things get even weirder. How will he cope with being an unclaimed demigod on a journey of survival with his new family? Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.


Chapter 1

At first, I didn't believe it either, but the gods of Olympus, the Greek gods, y'know Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, those guys? Well they're real.

I know what you're thinking, "This guy's nuts!" Well, I'm not. They're there, at the top of the Empire State Building, 600th floor. That's right, I said it. If you don't believe me, take a look. Don't see it? Look harder.

Thing is, sometimes the gods would come down to Earth and, how shall I put this… um… hook up? They would hook up with mortals. Their kids are called demigods, or half-bloods. You may know some, Hercules or Achilles.

My name is Jake Browning. I'm a demigod.

I was coming up on my 10th birthday when my life took a turn I never could have imagined. For better or worse, it's impossible to say. I spent my entire life in Preston House, an orphanage in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. I never was particularly lucky; I mean no-one wants to adopt a kid with ADHD and Dyslexia, so by the time I was 6 I'd pretty much given up all hope. Add into the fact that everyone thought I was crazy and you can pretty much guess my life. No-one ever believed my stories of when I was chased by a huge black dog during our field trip to Buchanan Art Gallery, or when I saw a bunch of teenagers fighting a large bull-man with swords and bows. As a result, I got the reputation of 'that hyper psychotic loser' and got picked on every day by the older kids. I never put up with it, though. I was a scrapper, until the kleptos and the weirdos (who were all teenagers with 6 packs, might I add) all got a hand on each limb and beat me until I fell unconscious and woke up the next day. I eventually took the hint: I wasn't wanted. So I left. I packed a bag with food I'd been stealing all week, a couple of changes of clothes and a pocketknife off of a newbie who thought he could take me on one-on-one. Stupid git. Then, at night, I snuck out through my window (conveniently placed at an alley, funnily enough), slid carefully down the pole and headed into the street before flipping up the hood of my red hoodie as the rain soaked my black jeans and black canvas Adidas trainers. I muttered, "Good riddance," and headed on my way, with no destination, only my leather jacket visible in the moonlight.

...

You ever had that feeling? That crushing feeling when you've done something, but once you've finished the main reason you did it suddenly has become void, so you feel like crap and that someone or something is working against you? Imagine how I felt when the rain stopped just as I completed my shelter for the night. Great, huh? But d'you know what's even better? When two great black dogs with flaming red eyes burst out of a nearvy bush flanked by a huge serpent-dragon thing with what seemed to be 5 heads. Only one thought ran through my head: I am utterly screwed.

Despite that, I grabbed my knife and ran. And ran. And ran. I only looked back when I tripped up and fell flat on my face. Nothing but people, cars and buildings. To my left was a bunch of planes taking off, some stupidly slow motorcarts laden with bags and one big building. Glasgow Airport. It had to be. A dark chuckle echoed inside my head, even though it seemed to originate from deep within the damp ground itself, a sadistic rumbling right beneath my very feet. The voice was an arrow and my sanity was the target. A metallic scraping tore through my near-to-10-year-old skull as it harrowingly rasped, "Join me, child. It is your fate. After all, could you truly resist gaining the family you never had, Jacob?" The use of my full name disturbed me almost as much as the voice, but what really got through to me was the words. Family? My blood boiled as I could somehow tell that he, whoever he was, was related to me in some way, yet never came for me? Never cared? Still, blood be the thickest bond there is. If I had family, out there somewhere, I wanted to find them. To make things right. I could, right? No, sounded a stronger voice in the back of my head. He obviously doesn't care. I shook my head and snuck through the airport slowly, until I found the boards.

Chicago:- 04:30

I checked my watch. 03:47. Great, I thought dryly. Just sneak through onto a plane undetected in less than half an hour with no idea how to do so? Easy peasy. That was sarcam, incase you didn't catch it.

...

It took a while, but I eventually, through all the "aren't you too young to be wandering yourself?" and "where's your parents, kid?" I managed to hide in a suitcase which was to be loaded onto the plane for Chicago (after emptying it, of course). After the loading door was shut I snuck around and before too long I found myself in the toilet of an aeroplane I don't know how high in the air pondering the strange events of the day. What were those things? Where did the voice (if you could call it that) from earlier come from? What would I do once I reachded America?

I mean, I've heard it be referred to as the 'Land of Opportunity', but did that apply to an almost-10-year-old hyperactive dyslexic orphan with nowhere to go and nothing to lose? I certainly hoped so. I felt the turbulence and my heart leaped out my chest. Did I mention I'm afraid of heights? Not completely, mind you, I just hate not being able to control things in the air, like planes. Of course, even if I could, I'd probably make it go down as quickly and as safely as possible. I decided to hit the sack for a few hours. Bad idea.

...

In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were spirits of the dead.

They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.

Looking down made me dizzy.

The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.

"The little hero." The 'voice' from earlier sounded amused as it echoed far down in the darkness. "Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do."

The 'voice' now felt ancient-it had a cold and heavy ring to it. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.

"I will not allow you to be misled, boy," it said. "Come now. Join me." I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.

Cold laughter rose terribly from the chasm.

An invisible force pulled me forward. It could drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.

"Help me rise, boy." The 'voice' became hungrier. "Go to your family. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods!"

The spirits of the dead whispered around me, "No! Wake!"

The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.

I realised it wasn't interested in pulling me _in_. It was using me to pull itself _out._

"Good," it murmered. "Good."

"Wake!" the dead whispered. "Wake!"

My eyes opened once the plane hit the runway. I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest.

"We have arrvied in Chicago," echoed the static tannoy. "Thank you for flying with us. Have a pleasant day."

I figured it was time to go-everyone would think I was part of the crowd, so I'd have no trouble. I checked my wallet and saw that I only had around £10. That's, what, $15? I dunno, but it wasn't much: I could get some food, a flint maybe. Ach, it was enough to start off on, anyways.

I was right: no-one noticed me. Therefore it was easy to slip out into my first glimpse of the United States. I had one problem, though: no idea how to get around, so I wandered around for a bit; I snagged a burger and chips at the nearest McDonald's before buying a flint at a survival store and stealing a serrated-edged knife (for cutting wood and hunting animals, the pocketknife was for situations like getting pinned down on the ground during a fight). I made my way out of the city (almost getting nagged twice for 'jaywalking', I can't understand that-how can it be a law to cross the freaking road?" and trudged deep into the forest, crackling leaves and snapping twigs under my relatively small feet.

By the time I got halfway through, it was starting to get dark. I guessed it was about 7 in the evening (I managed to lose my watch somehow). Unfortunately, as I just finished making my first bow two more of those 'devil-dugs' attacked with even more company: another 'serpent-dragon' this giant, well, giant with green fire in his hands (how did he do that?) and a few women with snakes for hair.

Before I could do anything, one of the devildugs launched at me, catching my left arm in a vicious death-grip with its monstrous teeth. The pain that shot through my arm was unimaginable: it felt as though it was engulfed in fire from the devil's personal torture chamber. I don't know how many times I slammed the blade of my serrated knife into its throat as it violently thrashed its head around but it eventually crumbled into dust. What the heck was that?

I stood up shakily as a new threat entered the fray: the monster surrounded my front in a semi-circle while an evil-looking woman in her 50s walked forward, wearing a leather jacket. "Hello, child," she greeted cordially. I was understandably surprised by her pleasantness. "Do you know who I am?" I shook my head, not trusting my voice. I would more than likely either insult her badly or whimper in fear. Neither provided a decent outcome. Her very presence chilled my blood and froze me to the ground. "Well, I am Alecto, eldest of the Furies, and it is time for you to die, little demigod!" Hold a second. Be kind rewind: Furies, demigod, what? I didn't have time to think before this 'Alecto' exploded. Literally exploded. Into a screeching shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs.

I did what any normal person would do: I tightened my grip on my knife and ran even faster than before as my mini-camp burst into green flames from the giant's hand. Alecto flew into the sky and began taunting me with, "Run, run, little demigod!" and cackling maniacally. The snake-haired women threw daggers at me during the chase, the serpent-dragon spat mini-balls of fire and the devildug just plain chased me. I could smell its horrid breath, reminding me of decomposed flesh, a sprawling no-man's-land littered with grotesque bodies and I felt my resolve weaken. How could I fight this? Was I going to run forever? Would not be better to just give up now, and accept my death? No, I thought sternly. I wasn't going to die. Not here, not now. The only thing keeping the devildug from devouring me was the directions I was taking. I would hop between two close trees and it would slam int the gap. Luckily the others simply had bad aim.

My luck didn't last, though. A green fireball ripped me from the dirt and chucked me off the edge of the cliff. Stones tore through my skin and sticks painfully lodged in the gash on my arm as I tumbled down the slop. Crashing as the bottom I noticed a small camp. People. I got to my feet and stumbled towards the camp when a boy and a girl a few years older than me and a girl a few years younger than me rushed to my aid. The boy took out a sword(?), the girl older than me took out a mace canister which transformed into a spear and tapped her bracelet as it became a horrifying shield engraved with the most terrifying face I've ever seen while the younger girl took out a small bronze dagger.

The devildug was dealt with easily. I must have been hallucinating because the older girl merely shot lightning out of her hand holding the spear before it crumbled to dust.

The boy chopped off the hands of the snake-haired women. Another two down.

The younger girl dealt with the 'giant' fairly easily. She rolled out of the way of a fireball and leapt onto its back. It crumbled too once she jumped and slashed its throat with her dagger.

The serpent-dragon almost sprayed them with flames but missed before the younger girl stabbed it in the heart, the older girl rammed it in the side with her spear and the boy lopped its heads off quickly. Alecto screeched and flew off with a warning, "You will all die at some point, by my hand!"

The group came over to me and I held up my knife warningly despite my condition and the fact that they just killed the things that put me in this situation. I got a good look at them. The older girl was the first me eyes went to as she stood out more than the others. She had short, choppy jet-black hair and electric-blue eyes. With her leather jacket and ripped black jeans she would have looked right at home at a rock concert. She also wore a t-shirt with faded 'Death to Barbie' writing and a small amount of black eyeliner. Her aura told me not to cross her unless I wanted a fate worse than any the creatures could give me. _She_ was dominant. _I_ followed _her_ lead. Never make the mistake to think otherwise. The younger girl had curled blonde hair and stormy gray eyes. They held an unmistakeably intelligent look and I didn't want to go up against her in a fight because any strategy I put up would be countered by her. She dressed plainly, much like myself: sky-blue t-shirt, dark blue jeans and red canvas trainers. The boy had sandy hair and pale blue eyes with a mischievious glint in them. My hand unconsciously went to my pockets even though nothing was in them; he couldn't be trusted around valuables. He dressed like a Californian surfer and looked like it too. He seemed to be in charge, so it was him I looked in the eyes when I warned him to stay back.

"It's alright," he said cautiously. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"Unless you attack us first, but I wouldn't try it," warned the the older girl. Something made me believe them.

"You're... like me?" I asked warily. They weren't monsters, but they could be worse.

"Yeah," asserted the punk stiffly. "That looks bad, you'll need to get it cleaned up." She seemed as reluctant to trust me as I was to trust them. That was fine. Still, they were human and they were offering help. I had nothing to lose, so I lowered my guard.

"I'm Luke. This is Annabeth and Thalia," the boy said, gesturing to the blonde and the punk, respectively. "And Thalia's right, we need to look at your arm quickly. If you stay with is we can treat it before it gets infected." I thought it over. They seemed nice enough, and where was I gonna go? There weren't any doctors for miles around. I decided to play it safe for now: go with them, but stay alert for anything suspicious.

Unfortunately I never got to tell them before the world went dark and I passed out.


End file.
